SummerSlam (2013)
SummerSlam (2013) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE and presented by Doritos Jacked, that took place on August 15, 2010, at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California for the fourth consecutive year. It was the twenty-sixth annual SummerSlam event. The event's card consisted of nine matches, including three main matches. In the first, Bray Wyatt defeated Kane for Ring of Fire match. The second saw Alberto Del Rio defeating Christian to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. The third saw Brock Lesnar defeated CM Punk in the No disqualification match. The fourth saw Dolph Ziggler and Kaitlyn defeating AJ Lee and Big E Langston for the Mixed tag team match. The fifth saw Daniel Bryan defeating John Cena to win the WWE Championship, however, Randy Orton cashed in his Money in the Bank contract and defeated Bryan to win the title. Storylines The professional wrestling matches at SummerSlam featured professional wrestlers performing as characters in scripted events pre-determined by the hosting promotion, WWE. Storylines between the characters played out on WWE's primary television programs, Raw and SmackDown. On the July 15 episode of Raw, new Raw General Manager Brad Maddox announced that WWE Champion John Cena could choose his own Summerslam opponent. Later that night, after taking an informal poll of the live audience, he chose Daniel Bryan. In the weeks before SummerSlam, Vince McMahon would berate Daniel Bryan by trying to make him shave his beard, putting him into a gauntlet match against his former friend Kane. On the August 12 episode of Raw, Maddox served as special guest referee in a match with Bryan facing Wade Barrett. After making a quick count to let Barrett win the match, Maddox offered his services as the guest referee for the Cena vs. Bryan match at the PPV when Triple H interceded, and announced he'd serve as referee instead (punctuated by a Pedigree to Maddox). After AJ Lee retained her Divas Championship against Kaitlyn at Money in the Bank and later cost Dolph Ziggler his attempt at winning the World Heavyweight Championship, Ziggler broke up with AJ the next night on Raw, causing her to distract Ziggler in his non-title rematch against Del Rio and leaving Big E Langston to attack him. On the July 29 episode of Raw, Kaitlyn defeated AJ in a non-title match to stay in contention for the Divas Championship, but four days later on SmackDown, AJ defeated Kaitlyn to retain the championship after Layla interfered and protected AJ. A week later on SmackDown, The Miz (the host of SummerSlam) announced that Kaitlyn and Ziggler would face AJ and Langston in a mixed tag team match at the PPV. At Payback, CM Punk defeated Chris Jericho in his return in his hometown. The next night on Raw he challenged World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio to a match, turning face. He won by countout, but a returning Brock Lesnar attacked him. Over the next few weeks, tension rose between Punk and Paul Heyman, who cost Punk the WWE Championship Money in the Bank Ladder Match at Money in the Bank. The next night on Raw, Lesnar again attacked Punk. The next week, Punk challenged Lesnar to a match at SummerSlam. Heyman accepted on Lesnar's behalf. During the SummerSlam kickoff show, Heyman announced that both Lesnar and Punk had agreed to make the match no disqualification. On the July 19 episode of SmackDown, Randy Orton defeated World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio in a non-title match. However, on the July 29 Raw, Christian also defeated Del Rio in a non-title match. To determine the next challenger for Del Rio's championship, new SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero decided to make a triple threat match between Christian, Orton, and the returning Rob Van Dam. The match ended with Christian reversing Orton's attempt of an RKO into a backslide pin, winning the match and becoming the new #1 contender for the title before being attacked by Del Rio. On the August 9 episode of SmackDown, Christian defeated Del Rio in another non-title match. At the Money in the Bank pay-per-view on July 14, Damien Sandow won the Money in the Bank briefcase for a future World Heavyweight Championship shot, betraying his former tag team partner Cody Rhodes in the process. Rhodes attacked Sandow after the latter's loss to Christian the following night on Raw. On the July 26 SmackDown, while Sandow was facing Randy Orton in a singles match, Rhodes took his briefcase, causing Sandow to lose the match and search for it. Rhodes threw it into the Gulf of Mexico, and Sandow was unable to retrieve it because he couldn't swim. It was announced on the August 5 Raw that Rhodes would face Sandow at SummerSlam. Four days later on SmackDown, Sandow debuted his new, brown Money in the Bank briefcase with a new World Heavyweight Championship contract. Later on, after Christian defeated Del Rio in a non-title match, Sandow attempted to cash in his contract, but his effort was thwarted by Rhodes. On the July 8 episode of Raw, after Kane defeated Christian, The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan) attacked Kane, removing him from competing at the Money in the Bank ladder match for the WWE Championship contract. The Wyatt Family attacked Kane again three weeks later on Raw, after losing to Daniel Bryan. A week later on Raw, after Harper and Rowan defeated Tons of Funk (Brodus Clay and Tensai), Kane announced that he would face Bray Wyatt in a Ring of Fire match at SummerSlam. On the August 12 episode of Raw, as a result of their feud stemming from starring on Total Divas, Natalya challenged Brie Bella to a match at the pay-per-view, which she accepted by slapping Natalya's face. Natalya also announced that The Funkadactyls (Naomi and Cameron) will be in her corner due the fact that Eva Marie has aligned herself with The Bella Twins. Also on the August 12 episode of Raw, Rob Van Dam won a 20-man battle royal (lastly eliminating Mark Henry) to challenge Dean Ambrose for the United States Championship at the SummerSlam Kickoff Show, one hour before the pay-per-view broadcast. Aftermath On the August 19 episode on Raw, John Cena confronted the audience, informing them he was temporally leaving the WWE due to a triceps surgery. He returned at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view against Alberto Del Rio for the World Heavyweight Championship. The same day, The Shield and Randy Orton formed an alliance with the WWE COO Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, The Authority, which was created to stop Daniel Bryan from regaining the WWE Championship. The storyline between Bryan and The Authority culminated at WrestleMania XXX, where Bryan defeated Triple H to be added in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship main event, thus making it a triple threat match, which Bryan won. Del Rio's former ring announcer Ricardo Rodriguez began working with Rob Van Dam. On the September 13 episode of SmackDown, he was defeated by Del Rio and was assaulted by him afterwards. Van Dam challenged Del Rio twice for the World Heavyweight Championship at Night of Champions and Battleground, both in losing efforts. After SummerSlam, AJ Lee ended her partnership with Big E and at Night of Champions, she faced Natalya, Naomi and Brie Bella for the Divas Championship in a fatal four-way match. During at that time, Lee started a feud with the cast of E!'s TV series Total Divas by cutting a worked shoot promo criticizing them. CM Punk continued to feud with Paul Heyman. He lost to Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam and defeated the Intercontinental Champion, at that time, Curtis Axel on August 26 episode of Raw. On the September 2 episode of Raw, Big Show fought Daniel Bryan and attempted to exit the ring before Stephanie McMahon told him to return and knock out Bryan. That same night, Cody Rhodes was fired after losing to Randy Orton. Then, on the September 9 episode of Raw, Rhodes' brother Goldust returned in an attempt to earn his brother's job back, but failed to do so. The Authority then invited Cody Rhodes' and Goldust's father Dusty Rhodes on Raw, but after an argument Stephanie McMahon ordered Big Show to knockout the American Dream. At Battleground, Cody Rhodes and Goldust got their jobs back after defeating The Shield's Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns and on the October 14 episode of Raw, they defeated Rollins and Reigns to win the WWE Tag Team Championship in a No Disqualification match due to interference by Big Show, who knocked out all three members of The Shield. Results Other on-screen personnel See also * List of WWE pay-per-view events * SummerSlam Category:SummerSlam Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events Category:2013 Pay-Per-View Events